Last Visit
by litromantic
Summary: Rorys changed for the worse. Someone tries to help her back. One shot, completed.


Rory Gilmore walked silently down the sidewalk from her car, hoping to catch Dosie's market before it closed. Normally she would rather be anywhere but on the streets of her hometown, but she had just come from Lane's and had a better chance here then catching a store open in Hartford. It was cold in more ways then one, she kept her arms close to her body and her head down, hoping to discourage anyone from trying to call her out from the fog. So, naturally, she bumped into a man standing outside of Luke's diner.

"Jeez! Watch it!" Rory froze. Her entire body rendered useless, her mind had even stopped working, not able to conceive this, as if it took too much memory. All she could see of the man was a scruffy brown head as he leaned down to pick up his fallen papers, but she knew exactly who he was.

"You know, normally you would apologize or maybe help me or even-"

Breath finally came to Rory's body, her mind whirred forward. "Jess?" As she watched his arms stop gathering, she knew that this was really happening. He was back, again. His head turned up slowly, brown eyes shocked but curious.

"Rory?" He stood up slowly until they were eye to eye. Rory wasn't sure what to do next. According to the pattern of previous events she should probably start yelling at him, or run away in absolute anger. But he wasn't asking for anything, in fact it was an accident. "How've you been?" he asked finally and awkwardly, as if they had no past. Did he really not know anything? Maybe he didn't talk to Luke anymore.

"What are you doing here?" he must've come back for me, she thought. He shifted uncomfertably, looking at the forgotten papers sprawled out on the ground instead of at Rory's thin face. He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

"I came to see Luke." He took a long pause, and Rory waited, expecting to here him take back his words and claim his return for the 'love of his life' "because I'm getting married." Rory didn't think she had ever been proven more wrong. Her mouth dropped open as her nerves went spastic again.

"oh" she said in her smallest voice. Of all the situations Rory had imagined, this had never crossed her mind. Jess was getting married? He was committing himself to someone, for the rest of his life. Someone that wasn't her. After all the things he had said about how he loved her and she was the only one for him, he had gotten down on one knee to someone else, after not even being able to take her to prom?

"Uh. Congratulations." The words sounded cold and obsolete. He knew she couldn't possibly be happy about this. But how should she be feeling? She rejected him twice after he left, right? She had a boyfriend who was cute and rich and here-why couldn't she be happy?

"I'm sorry-I thought Luke would have told Lorelai." Rory felt a twinge of guilt as she remembered the missed call and message from her mother she had immediately erased.

"He probably did." They stood, looking straight at eachother, in a silence filled with memories of happiness and love, accomplishment and abandonment and failure. But mostly, Rory could remember the boy in her doorway, cute and troubled, and the man telling her he loved her, that she was everything to him. And she knew he was gone. Jess had turned into what Rory pretended she wanted him to be-over it. So she had to be that too. "I want to meet her. She's here right?" Jess seemed more surprised by the restarted conversation than the question, and he nodded.

"I'll call you." She reached into her purse to search for a pen and some paper.

"You'll need my new cell phone number." He looked puzzled.

"I can't reach you at home?" She ignored his question, preferring to ignore the subject, and wrote 'tell me about your book.' and her number, and handed him the slip of paper. He held it in his hands, looking at the blank side, and she knew he was lost again.

"I have to go back to my car." She gestured backwards, not aware how strange it was that she was walking back the direction she came from. He nodded, and she left as he turned the paper over. Forgetting about her feminine needs in her disbelief, she headed straight back to her grandparents. How could this happen? Jess was unstable, unreliable, unhappy. He couldn't keep a commitment to a phone call, yet he could commit his life to someone? Why couldn't have been Rory? She had tried to help him, to steer him towards goals and happiness. She had loved him. Wasn't that enough?

When she got home there was a message from Logan, apologizing for not being able to go out tonight. Rory had completely forgotten about their plans, and erased the message. She had forgotten about Logan, as well. Logan was fun and upbeat, but was also often drunk and canceled plans. He had been caught cheating on her twice, but Rory felt the fact that he didn't dump her was good enough. If he really didn't want to be with her, he could leave her. So she put up with his unfaithfulness for the little things, the times when he played with her hair or held her close to him through the morning. Jess never cheated on her-he never even acknowledged other women. Although he was often quiet and troubled, he loved her and did everything for her. She had been the center of his world. No matter how sweet Logan was, she missed that now. Now, someone else was everything for him and she was a girlfriend of a man whore. Crawling onto her bed, she started to cry. "Fuck." She whispered quietly.

The phone woke her up at 9:30. Early. She groaned but picked it up anyways with a groggy "Heffulump?" which her mind had mistaken for "hello?".

"Rory? Its Jess." Of course, no apology for waking her up.

"mhm." It was too early.

"I thought you could eat lunch with me and Lynn at two, is that alright?" Lynn. That was the woman-Jess's future wife. Jess's fiancé. It felt weird and alien as Rory rolled it around in her mind.

"Uh yeah."

"No classes or anything?"

"No. Uhm, can I bring my boyfriend, Logan along?"

"Uh, sure." Rory took joy in hearing a bit of pain still in Jess's voice. It was only fair.

"Logan?" she got a long, hung-over, angry moan as a reply. "My ex-boyfriends in town and hes getting married. I'm having lunch with him and I want you to come." She left out "and his fiancé", hoping jelousy and fear of loosing Rory would push him to come. But apparently, he finds her very trustworthy.

"I can't today, Ace. I have a…thing with the guys." Great, now Jess and Lynn could know that Rorys boyfriend was unreliable, or possibly imaginary.

"Fine." She hung up.

After introductions, Rorys apologies for Logan , and ordering, the soon-to-be newlyweds and Rory were all sitting on an incredibly uncomfortable silence. Rory was staring at Jess hand, which was comfortably placed over lynns on the table, her hand-me-down engagement ring poking through.

"So Rory, how's Yale?" Apparently, Jess had filled Lynn in or Rorys life. Rory felt her face getting hot. She knew it would come up, but that didn't mean she was prepared to be a drop out in front of her ex-boyfriends gorgeous blonde fiancé.

"Well, I'm not going for a while." Lynn was much smarter than Shane, yet didn't process this. Jess only stared at Rory with a strange look on his face.

"What do you mean? Taking a year off for travel?"

"Well, I'm not sure how long it will be. I'm working right now, living with my grandparents." As she answered more of Lynns questions, she stared at Jess faces, trying to understand. Then it hit her. It was concern. He was worried, and concerened-about her! Jess, high school dropout with some minimum wage job was concerned about Rory Gilmore, good girl, valedictorian, got in to Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

"Well I have to go make some business calls, and I'm sure you guys want to talk anyways." Rory watched this woman kiss Jess tenderly on the cheek and then leave.

"Why aren't you living with Lorelai."

"Blunt much?"

"Come on, Rory. Lorelai is your best friend, and all of a sudden you don't talk to her anymore? I may have never understood your freaky twin like relationship, but it was part of you." Rory was angry. Why was he yelling at her like this? It was her life.

"I'm sorry but ever since you walked out on me you have lost your right to have a say in what I do in my life!" People were starting to stare at them in the restarunt, but they ignored it.

"Oh come on Rory, you are over that. I..care about you and I-"

"Care about me? You couldn't even take me to the fucking prom, but you can marry this woman, and your telling me you care about me? I'm beginning to think you never really cared about me."

"Rory, come ON, of course I cared about you. This is stupid, your just trying to pin the conversation on me so we don't have to talk about you!" It was silent for a minute, Rory was still filled with anger because she knew Jess was right.

"Look. We aren't friends, we don't need to talk about this. I'm glad you're happy with Lynn, now can you please give me a ride home? I'd rather not take the bus back." Jess looked at her silently, fuming, for two minutes, before paying for lunch and escorting her out to his car. Saftely on the road, he took a chance while she couldn't leave the car.

"Rory. I know this is weird, it is for me too. But I was a kid when you and I dated, and I was going through a lot."

"Oh so we were just kids, huh?"

"Rory, come on. You know that's not what I'm saying. And you should listen, because you're probably never going to hear me talk this much again." Rory stared at the dashboard and gave in.

"Fine. I'm listening."

"I….I loved you. But I wasn't right for you, and you knew that. I came back for you, remember? You made decisions and so I moved on. That doesn't change what I did before"

Rory said nothing. She turned on the radio for the rest of the drive, not wanting to talk to him anymore. She heard her cellphone beep-new messages. One from Logan that she erased after seeing Jess flinch with satisfaction, then one from her mother. She knew about the lunch and wanted Rory to call her. Rory erased it and put the phone back in the bag as they arrived at the Gilmores. Jess parked and Rory got out of the car, waiting for him as he fumbled around with something. Rory had heard the explanation she had tried to avoid-it was her fault he was engaged. He had been there and she hadn't, and now she couldn't say he was a bad boyfriend or he cheated on her or left her, because he tried. He got out now and they started the long walk to the poolhouse.

"You never told me about your book."

"I'm working on it."

"I hope you finish it, because I'd really like to read it." She turned around to face him as they reached her door, and she saw pain in his eyes. He still loved her. He had to still love her. In a moment of remorse and regret and hope and love, she kissed him, throwing her arms around his neck. He welcomed her, holding his arms around her for a small fraction of a second. But then he pushed her away.

"No, Rory." Tears welled up in her eyes, of anger and of rejection, blurring her vision.

"What happened to all that stuff you said about us being meant for eachother? You said you loved me. I thought you said we were meant to be together?" He looked at her, sadder and wiser then she could have ever imagined seeing this young boy. A moment passed, she was breathing heavily to stop herself from sobbing, waiting for an explanation she had been hoping for all day. Finally, he opened his mouth, and truth came out.

"You're not the girl I fell in love with." He gave her a white slip of paper, and kissed her on the forehead. As he walked out of sight, he said "Call Lorelai."

With the warmth of his lips still fresh, she was left with a slip of paper and the weight of his words. She opened the paper, reading 'Tell me about Yale. 555-3458".


End file.
